CHAPTER ONE:
I dreamed about the moon. It was dark all around except the sliver of light ahead - a few stars out highlighting the empty space. A breeze wafted through that smelled of pine and something more, something that piqued my interest and made me turn. A shadow was there, far down the mountain I stood on. Wolves stood around the figure. I should’ve been afraid. But I wasn’t. I felt safe. I started to walk toward the figure.
And my alarm went off.
I woke up abruptly to the morning of my first day of high school. Again. After suffering through two years at the worst, most stereotypical high school in all of the known universe, I had had enough. Every day I suffered through the most boring classes, with the least impersonal teachers in the world, walked through hallways suffocated in teenage sexual tension and “bro” attitude. Every day I breezed past fights in the making, and the plastic bitches primping and priming in the bathroom, pushing their bras up and their shirt collars down. Every day I came home, started homework immediately, and didn’t finish until 3am. I had had enough. Hearing from my middle school friend, Ally, how great her high school was - it finally got to me. I didn’t have to do high school like every teenage girl in a Lifetime movie. Today I was starting school at Ally’s high school, Pacific High.
“Ready mija?” My mom asked, one hand digging through her purse.
“Yup.” I responded, looking for a quick snack to grab before she thought to ask me what my plans were for lunch.
My mom finished rifling through her purse right as I turned to her, left cheek full of delicious sweet bread, my ‘breakfast’. She made eye contact with me, smiled at the bread rolls she saw in my hand and nodded, the signal to get going. We drove 35 minutes to Belmar. I was finally going to have a do-over. Nothing could ruin today.
Arriving at Pacific High School over an hour into the school day felt strange. While I had been to the parking lot of this school before, the bus that took us from small town Melbourne (no, not the city in Australia) to the two high schools in Belmar always stopped here first before continuing to Piso High. I was overcome with how great it was going to be to be the new girl.
While most books, stories, movies, and television shows have characters that hate being the new kid, I always found it refreshing. Being new, being known, getting to start over. Having changed schools once in the middle of elementary school, and then moving to a different town for middle school, it felt great to be able to start anew at a different high school. I could do this one right. The last two years and a month hardly mattered. No mind how the students of Piso High despised the students of Pacific.
We got out of the car, and walked toward what we assumed the entrance to be. The school was built on the side of a hill. A benefit of living on the California coast. There was a heavy fog slowly rolling down the school, toward the not-too-distant pier barely in view. Once through what we thought was the entrance, we saw classrooms with blue doors and windows lining the sides of this strange indoor-outdoor hallway. The school had an open plan, there were trees in this “hallway” and most of the air above my head was uncovered. The occasional overhang broke the hallway down into large sections.
I had a hard time keeping up with my mom. Even with her short legs, she could walk three times my speed. After locating the office and opening the door, we saw a dark-haired woman behind the counter, and flagged her down.
Seated on the dark blue bench, my mom suddenly turned to me. “Atonces, mija. How do you like it so far?”
I looked around, at the actual tree growing in the outdoor hallway behind me, and took in all the bright white, contrasted with dark blue.
“I definitely like the colors...” I noted aloud.
Before my mom had the chance to comment on my miniscule assessment of the high school she so painstakingly pulled strings for me to get into, a petite, pale woman with large dark glasses came flouncing down the corner. I was way too distracted hoping that I was in at least one of Ally’s classes to notice how close she suddenly was. Damn, what was it with tiny women being so darn fast?
“Hello, I’m the Vice Principal, Ms. Arnhem,” she said, eyes focused on me.
I couldn’t help but smile. Her bubbly personality radiated from her eyes. She shook both our hands fervently, with a Cheshire cat grin, and asked us to follow her to her office. We took seats next to each other, while Ms. Arnhem sat opposite of us. We listened intently as she told us the school's history and explained how my day was going to go today, versus other days.
After a few questions from my mom, and after Ms. Arnhem presented me with my very own Pacific High School Planner, Ms. Arnhem bade us farewell. My mom waved good-bye and started down the hall before turning on her heel and reaching to squeeze me in a tiny bear hug. She touched my cheek, wishing me luck, and I turned toward the counselor's office. I knocked on the window-door and Mr. Chiu opened up right away.
“Ah, you’ve got to be Rachel,” he said while ushering me past his door and toward the one-seater couch-chair beside his desk.
I caught the striking green eyes of some guy walking into the office as Mr. Chiu ushered my into his office space.
The guy out there had been crazy good looking, it had knocked the breath out of me.
“Yup, that’s me. Transfer from P.H.,” I managed to say.
Mr. Chiu shut his office door and sat back at his desk, looking at his computer screen. It seems he was in the middle of an email when I knocked on the door. He asked me just to wait a moment while he finished his message.
After clicking ‘send’, he swiveled towards me and turned into a serious businessman. He efficiently asked me questions about the transcript he had in front of him, sent from P.H. It seems he was assembling my schedule. Mr. Chiu explained, as Ms. Arnhem had before him, that the school had a block schedule, and further elaborated by explaining that part of the Pacific High experience was what they called “houses.” Freshmen, Sophomores, and Juniors stayed in groups that rotated into Humanities (English and Social Studies) and Science. These groups stayed together until Senior year, and they kept the same teacher for three grades. It sounded great to me, as long as I was in Ally’s house!
Mr. Chiu spent a few moments clicking through some things and then told me that it looked like I would get an ‘odd ball schedule’ as there were only so many spots left in the different classes I needed to take. Before he could finalize things a bell rang and he looked up at the clock on the wall above his desk.
“Sh - I don’t have time to -” He paused and thought for a moment turning to the clock above the desk, and back at me, “Would you mind accompanying me to my Homeroom class? I have to get there in two minutes and I can’t leave a student here unattended.”
No problem with me. “Sure,” I responded, standing up while slinging my tote over my right shoulder, “After you.”
CHAPTER TWO: Mr. Chiu led me out of the indoor hall that connected his office and the other counselor offices with the main school office. We left the warm air and went straight back into the chilling fog. We passed three dark blue doors on our right, the carved mountain on the left, and at last Mr. Chiu came to a door beside what looked to be another random indoor hallway. I have no idea who the hell designed this school. Mr. Chiu pulled out keys and unlocked the door to our side, just as a small group of students began to appear from the randomly placed indoor hallway next door. I followed him inside, and took a seat at the fourth table from the door. In came students, easily identified by their more mature features and confidence as upperclassmen. Suddenly I was feeling a little nervous. I was now not just the new-girl, but the new-girl in a class of seniors. Trying to breathe through it and tough it out, like the new Rachel should, I didn’t notice the two girls boring holes
CHAPTER THREE: Levi led the class through the rubric of a new project that he had apparently briefly introduced yesterday. We would be working with our teams over the next two or so weeks. Each member would be responsible for part of the project and we would need to meet on our own time to put the whole thing together on a giant poster that we would then need to present to the entire class. After some students passed out different research forms, I got my piece of the assignment. Throughout the class I noticed that the students really liked this teacher. He was strange and excited, in the best way. He was loud and full of knowledge. He was definitely entertaining. Already a thousand times better than the teachers at P.H., who all taught in monotone voices, with dead eyes. I met the other two girls at my table - Lucy and Elizabeth. Both girls seemed to be much closer to each other than to Sarah. Sarah appeared to focus more on Levi. Lucy and Elizabeth seemed to be much more inter
CHAPTER FOUR: I found my way to the nearest bathroom, wetting a paper towel and patting my forehead. I had done way too much sweating today, over some guy, and was probably going to break out as a result. I have always had a bad habit of touching my forehead, a habit puberty tortured me for with litters of little red bumps. Today had been a good skin day and I was probably going to ruin it. After breathing for a moment to center myself, I pulled out my phone while walking out of the bathroom, dialing Ally’s number. She picked up after the third ring. “Rachel! It’s you! Where are you? I didn’t call you, wasn’t sure if you were still with the office people or what,” Ally chirped. “Ally, I really, really need to talk to you. I’ve been here since 9am and I’ve already got a truckload of crap to catch you up on.” Ally found me after a few minutes. In the process I learned that there was another girl’s bathroom on the same side of the building but in the opposite hallway. It really di
CHAPTER FIVE: The bus arrived about ten minutes after the strange encounter with the redhead who had never given his name. I got on and sat next to Ally, receiving plenty of glares from ‘friends’ who still attended Piso High on our way to the back. Well, not all of the eyes had given me glares. I couldn’t name the look Jake gave me. We had been part of the same little group of ‘friends’ who had tried to stick together at lunch time at Piso. We were the six people from the same middle school who didn’t immediately ditch to join drama club or cheer or whatever. The bus took us all first to Melbourne, where most of us unloaded, including me. It would then drop kids off at the border of Drurer City, before at last dropping off Ally and eight other kids in the Northern Hills area of Druer City. I got off the bus in Melbourne, at the one stop the bus made there, at the bottom of the city, at the one and only park. Being in the back of the bus, it took about four minutes of standing behind
CHAPTER SIX: That night I had a horribly vivid nightmare. A series of them. But the one that stood out the most was one where I was in complete darkness while being slowly turned into -something else. I had been standing there, feeling around with my hands trying to figure out where I was - trying to find a light switch or anything really. But there was nothing around. When I felt for the walls, there was air. When I felt up above my head, there was nothing there, and when I tried to feel for the ground, my hands just passed through chilly air. I was in a vacuum in space. There was no light, no sound, and there were no other objects other than myself. Then I felt something on my face, a feather. I reached for it and became attacked by countless birds. There were beaks pecking into my flesh, harsh rough feet grabbing hold of my hair and clothing, digging into my skin and breaking through flesh, making me scream. But I screamed in silence. I couldn’t make a sound as I was attacked. I w
CHAPTER 7: After about ten minutes Ally texted saying the van finally dropped them off. She asked me where I was and I responded. It was now 7:35 and as school didn’t start until 8:05, we had some time to kill. Ally entered the cafeteria and I excused myself to join her at our own table. “Who are they?” Ally asked with interest. “They look familiar…” “They’re from Melbourne, June - the one in the glasses - is a sophomore. We all went to Liveman together. Melanie’s her sister, and the other one is Angela. Melanie and Angela are seniors.” “Ah, okay. Yeah I sort of remember them…” Ally thought aloud. “Yeah, well Angela was weirdly warning me about Maxine and Marsha.” I caught Ally up to date about the strange comment and added that I was going to make up my own mind about them. Ally agreed with my decision. “You know how ridiculous some girls can be. All dramatic or whatever.” She concluded. Suddenly her face changed. “Hey I was hoping we could talk for a second. That okay?” “Of
CHAPTER EIGHT: After class I found Ally in the hall. Sean made a small wave as he walked off. “Oh that’s him isn’t it?” She asked excitedly. Max came up to join us. “Rach you are no fun! I was dying in there!” Max pulls on my arm, “We must chat - bring the smiley one!” Ally laughs and we both follow Max to her locker. Max and Ally formally meet and Max catches Ally up on what happened in her point of view, with me adding mine. “Whew, the vapors!” Ally says with a fake southern accent and fans her face with her hand. “You’ve barely been here one full day and have already made this way more interesting.” She laughs. I stand there smiling, feeling really good. I think this could be really good for me. After coming from Piso, where all I had was this greasy guy literally cornering me in the halls, this already feels so different. There was a brief time I thought Jake could make it different, but the stoic guy never said or did anything after I confessed my feelings for him. But tha
CHAPTER NINE: Break ends with me again in the bathroom splashing some water on my face. Ally had tracked me down after my full freak out. “Are you sure you’re okay?” She asks me, one hand on my shoulder as I look at my face in the mirror. I glance around and notice there is another person in here with us. I don’t want to talk about all this with a random stranger as a witness, so I shrug her off. She looks concerned. I use a paper towel to dab my face fully dry and walk back out to the hall. We should be rushing to class. “Yeah, I’ll be okay. I’ll explain later, okay? We’ve got to get going.” Ally didn’t look quite satisfied, “Okaaay.., but I’ll at least show you where you’re going. Ally led the way to my next class, Humanities. The class was two doors down from Mr. Chu’s Homeroom, where I had started part of my day yesterday. A student opened the door from inside and turned around to face those of us gathered by the door. Ally nudged my arm, “That’s Ms. Del Rios. Our Human